The invention relates broadly to the problem of charging a furnace without permitting gas and dust to escape freely into the ambient atmosphere.
More specifically, the invention relates to the problem of lifting off a cover of a furnace opening, charging or filling the interior of the furnace with a charge of moist or preheated coal, and then replacing the cover, without permitting gas and dust to escape freely into the ambient atmosphere.
Still more specifically, the invention relates to the problem of lifting off the covers, charging and then reclosing successive ones of the furnaces in a battery of furnaces, without permitting gas and dust to escape freely into the ambient atmosphere.
When filling the successive furnace chambers of a battery of coke furnaces with preheated coal, a great amount of gas and dust generally escapes into the atmosphere. This escape of dust and gas is environmentally detrimental and presents a serious health hazard to persons working in the vicinity of such a battery of coke furnaces. In the prior art, it has been proposed to counteract this escape of dust and gas, such as by incorporating steam jet nozzles in the furnace feed pipe or by incorporating suction ventilating devices. However, these proposed arrangements have not proven completely satisfactory inasmuch as they do not prevent the escape of a very considerable amount of dust and gas during the time interval between the completion of the filling operation and the reclosing of the furnace filling inlet.
It has also been proposed to lower a casing above a furnace and to thereupon lower a magnet through the casing onto a furnace cover so as to remove the same from the filling inlet. In addition, a filling conduit is mounted on the housing and is movable to a position above the opened filling inlet so as to charge the furnace. However, the sealing arrangement between the conduit and the casing has not proven altogether satisfactory in counteracting the escape of dust and gas towards the ambient atmosphere.